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Anyone who is to find Christ must first find the church. How could anyone know where Christ is and what faith is in him unless he knew where his believers are?

Martin Luther

Thesis 21: The theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. The theologian of the cross says what a thing is.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 16: The person who believes that he can obtain grace by doing what is in him adds sin to sin so that he becomes doubly guilty.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until it comes to rest in Thee.

Saint Augustine

Confessions

Thesis 13: Free will, after the fall, exists in name only, and as long as it does what it is able to do it commits a mortal sin.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 10: Indeed, it is very difficult to see how a work can be dead and at the same time not be harmful and mortal sin.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The theologian of glory searches endlessly for escape hatches, for a way to glory enticing enough to attract the free will.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 14: Free will, after the fall, has power to do good only in a passive capacity but it can always do evil in an active capacity.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 27: Rightly speaking, therefore, the work of Christ should be called the operative power, and our work, the operation; so our operation is pleasing to God by the grace of the operative power.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 8: By so much more are the works of man moral sins when they are done without fear in unadulterated, evil self-security.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 12: In sight of God sins are then truly venial when they are feared by men to be mortal.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The real seat of sin is not in the flesh but in our spiritual aspirations, in our "theology of glory."

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 5: The works of men are thus not mortal sins (we speak of works that are apparently good), as though they were crimes.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 28: The love of God does not first discover but create what is pleasing to it. The love of man comes into being through that which is pleasing to it.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Seventh Commandment: Thou shalt not steal.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God, and not take our neighbor's money or property, nor get it by false wares or false dealing, but help him to improve and protect his property and living.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

The cross insists on being its own story. It does not allow us to stand by and watch. It does not ask us to probe endlessly for a meaning behind or above everything that would finally awaken, enlighten and attract the exiled, slumbering soul.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

When we operate on the assumption that our language must constantly be trimmed so as not to give offense, to stroke the psyche rather than to place it under attack, it will gradually decline to the level of greeting-card sentimentality.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 15: Nor could free will remain in a state of innocence, much less do good, in an active capacity, but only in its passive capacity

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 17: Nor does speaking in the manner give cause for despair, but for arousing the desire to humble oneself and seek the grace of Christ.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Every man must do two things alone; he must do his own believing and his own dying.

Martin Luther

Thesis 25: He is not righteous who works much, but he who, without wok, believes much in Christ.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Eighth Commandment: Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God, and not falsely belie, betray, backbite nor slander our neighbor, but excuse him, speak well of him and put the best construction on all he does.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

The Second Commandment: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not curse, swear, conjure, lie or deceive by His name, but call upon His name in every time of need and worship Him with prayer, praise and thanksgiving.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

The Tenth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his cattle, nor anything that is his.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not estrange, force or entice away from our neighbor, his wife, servants or cattle, but urge them to stay and do their duty.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Thesis 18: It is certain that man must utterly despair of his own ability before he is prepared to receive the grace of Christ.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 3: Although the works of man always seem attractive and good, they are nevertheless likely to be mortal sins.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was legion.

C.S. Lewis

Surprised By Joy

The First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
What is meant by this? We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Unless the cross story does claim us and become our story, we shall not escape the clutches of the glory story.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The cross is the death of sin and the sinner. The cross does the "bottoming out". The cross is the "intervention" the addict/sinner is not coddled by false optimism but is put to death so that a new life can begin.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Fourth Commandment: Honor thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not despise our parents and superiors, nor provoke them to anger, but honor, serve, obey, love and esteem them.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not despise preaching and His Word, but deem it holy and gladly hear and learn it.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Beautiful music is the art of the prophets that can calm the agitations of the soul; it is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents God has given us.

Martin Luther

Thesis 6: The works of God (we speak of those that he does through man) are thus not merits, as though they were sinless.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Prayer is a strong wall and fortress of the church; it is a goodly Christian weapon.

Martin Luther

Thesis 23: The law works the wrath of God, kills, curses, accuses, judges and damns everything that is not in Christ.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 24: Yet that wisdom is not of itself evil, nor is the law to be evaded; but without the theology of the cross man misuses the best in the worst manner.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The real and true work of Christ's Passion is to make man conformable to Christ, so that man's conscience is tormented by his sins, in like measure as Christ was pitiably tormented in body and soul by our sins?

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.

Martin Luther

Thesis 22: The wisdom which perceives the invisible things of God thinking in terms of works completely puffs up, binds and hardens.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Be a sinner and sin strongly, but more strongly have faith and rejoice in Christ.

Martin Luther

Thesis 20: That person deserves to be called a theologian, however, who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God through suffering and the cross.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 26: The law says "do this" and it is never done. Grace says "believe in this" and everything is already done.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not craftily seek to gain our neighbor's inheritance or home, nor get it by a show of right, but help and serve him in keeping it.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Thesis 4: Although the works of God are always unattractive and appear evil, they are nevertheless really eternal merits.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 1: The law of God, the most salutary doctrine of life, cannot advance humans on their way to righteousness, but rather hinders them.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Fifth Commandment: Thou shalt not kill.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and not hurt nor harm our neighbor in his body, but help and befriend him in every bodily need.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding.

Martin Luther

You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.

Martin Luther

Thesis 11: Arrogance cannot be avoided or true hope be present unless the judgment of condemnation is feared in every work.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 9: To say that works without Christ are dead, but not mortal, appears to constitute a perilous surrender of the fear of God.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 7: The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

The Sixth Commandment: Thou shalt not commit adultery.
What is meant by this? We should fear and love God and live chaste and pure in words and deeds, and husband and wife each love and honor the other.

Martin Luther

The Small Catechism of Dr. Martin Luther

Thesis 19: That person does not deserve to be called a theologian, who looks upon the invisible things of God as though they were clearly perceptible in those things that have actually happened.

Martin Luther

The Heidelberg Disputation

Thesis 2: Much less can human works, which are done over and over again with the aid of natural precepts, so to speak, lead to that end.